Lords and Ladies
by Mariagoner
Summary: Sex, sin, scandal and seduction. The upper-class really aren't like ordinary human beings. Features SasuHina, ItaHina, GaaHina, a wicked sense of humor, and more than a few slightly graphic chapters that would make Anais Nin happy...
1. Scandals and Schemes

This fic is, on the whole, just a spot of ridiculous fun that I'm writing because if I didn't find a decent outlet for my creativity in the midst of all this stress and collegial madness, I'd go bonkers. (Even more so, anyway.) So really I had no choice left but to write a modern day AU Hinata/Sasuke (and Hinata/Gaara and Hinata/Neji) fic that's less about love triangles and more about love three dimensional figures that had points that go on endlessly into space, with poor Hinata trapped in the middle of it. I urge nobody to take this seriously and everybody to have fun seeing the intense silliness and bad jokes about Sasuke's sexual eye-lids as chapters go by.

And yes, reviews are very greatly loved and appreciated and likely to help me stick to a project rather than abandon it for the next thing that catches my fancy. So if you like this, please review. I would really, really appreciate it and it would greatly make my day. Thank you ahead of time!

**Title: Lords and Ladies, Chapter 1  
Fandom: Naruto  
Series: Lords and Ladies  
Characters/Pairings: Sasuke/Hinata, Gaara/Hinata, Neji/Hinata, Randomness  
Rating: R  
Summary: Lady Hinata had expected that her life would change after being married to Lord Sasuke in a sham marriage meant to throw off the chains of their respective families. But she had _no_ idea that the greatest of worries was only now coming...  
Note: This is a purely silly, frothy, fun modern-day AU that takes place with Konoha and Suna still intact but rearranged in strange ways.**

* * *

Lying upon the enormous bed that she vaguely shared with her husband, Lady Hinata Hyuuga Uchiha-- the flower of the court of the modern-day Konoha empire and the highest placed noblewoman in the land only behind the Empress and the Crown Dowager-- found herself wiggling her toes in distress only because she could not quite wring her hands properly.

Not that her husband was any better off, of course. No, Lord Sasuke Uchiha-- the premiere blade among the royal bucks of the court, the second in line to the imperial throne and the shining future of their empire and people-- was huddled onto his side, groaning softly. From the noises he was making, he had either just finished with having the best sex of his life, or he had been beaten about the head with a sack of crazed weasels.

(Since Hinata was the closest thing to a sex partner about and she knew _she_ hadn't just had sex with him-- previously or likely ever, not that she minded that in the least _what_soever-- the crazed weasel hypothesis seemed more likely.)

Gathering up her courage, Hinata vaguely ghosted a few fingers across her husband's back, making a motion that looked a bit like that of a concussed crab but that seemed passably soothing. And in return-- perhaps a sign that he might trust her a little at last, or that her peculiar form of stubbornness had finally worn him down-- he gave another crazed weasel groan and turned over to look at her more clearly.

It improved the view at least, Hinata noted, her breath catching momentarily. Whatever other adjectives people liked to hurl at Sasuke-- jerk, tightwad, asshole, bastard, someone-whose-sour-puss-might-actually-b

e-improved-by-being-chewed-on-by-crazed-weasels-- even the largest of his critics couldn't dispute that he was an extraordinarily good looking example of a human being. Of course, the more malicious of them would then go on to wonder what _gender_ that human being was meant to be... but between the piercing dark eyes, the stunning fall of midnight-hued hair, the exquisitely drawn features, the cheekbones that could carve steel and the body that was built for all sorts of sin...

Hinata clutched the bedsheets beneath her, less with the dainty catch of well-bred aristocratic lady and more with the desperate heave of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

She wasn't about to head down that futile road, of course. And besides, they had far greater troubles to worry about here.

"A-are you sure?" she finally asked, almost physically feeling her stutter as it exited her mouth clumsily. Had all of those speech classes been for nothing? "M-maybe you heard them wrong? Maybe our clan elders weren't talk about us having... well, you know. Maybe they were, um, talking about us having _rabies._ You have to admit, between that nest of weasels you ran into the last week and the way you--"

She was about to say _the way you usually act_, but a look at the gathering storm clouds of Byronic brooding already gathering on Sasuke's brow made her kind heart divert her words easily.

"T-the way you've been a bit touchy as of late," Hinata said instead, more or less smoothly. "I mean, we've all been tense with the goings on in the palace and the arrival of Emperor Gaara--"

From the look of murderous rage that easily slid on Sasuke's face at that name, that wasn't really going to calm him down either. Hinata switched tracks again, trying to decide on a safer topic whilst timidly bringing her hand up to touch her nearly unreachable husband's shoulder, trying to soothe him again in some way...

...And feeling her own variously-described opaque eyes widen slightly, as Sasuke's body tensed like a taut bow-string at her touch, before relaxing effortlessly.

That was... was interesting. They'd been married for months and she hadn't ever realized she was capable of doing _this_ for him.

Although interesting was all it was, of course. Dry. Academic. Distant. Nearly scientific. The sort of thing you could divide into a set of equation and teach to generations of bored graduate students over many, many years.

It was not something that should make the roof of her mouth go curiously dry. Not that her body would ever betray her in such a way.

With some difficulty, Hinata gathered herself up and locked eyes with her often distant husband, somehow feeling as though his strange eyes met her own with a visible fusion of their two beings.

Ridiculous, of course, but given what they were talking about... melding themselves together in one form or another was starting to seem increasingly less unlikely.

"They could just be grasping at the straws now," Hinata began slowly, even as her fingertips burned at their place on her husband's body. "There's been so many changes as of late-- Prince Gaara coming to the court and the Empire of Suna approaching us and all the things we're learning about in terms of even more dangerous outsiders as of late. There's so much-- so much instability around us now and I can understand if my father and your brother and our clans have that certain... _points_ in our marriage need to be arranged for further dynastic ease. Not to mention the way it would cheer the public up as of late. But still, that doesn't mean they can decide..."

Sasuke interrupted her with a rare laugh that would have been rarer still if it had had the least trace of honest amusement within it. As it was, it was simply flat, cold and devastatingly dour, flecked with bits of bitterness and cold grace.

"This matter of our lives? Why not? After all, they've decided nearly everything up till this present day. They decided where we lived. They decided who we were. They decided what we learned. They decided what we were allowed to do. And they certainly decided who we married--"

She could feel the soft burn of a blush caress her face; nonetheless, she had to say something.

"They might have started it," she said softly, her eyes retreating from her husband's to lock upon her fumbling hands. "But we certainly had a say."

Somehow, this prompted another laugh from Sasuke-- an even rare one, this one softer and less marked by bitterness or barely suppressed rage. It wasn't a laugh he granted to everyone and Hinata felt a sudden impulse to bottle it up, keep it close to her, hold it to her and keep it safe.

With Sasuke, you never knew the next time you'd hear him the way she had just done today.

"Yes, I suppose we did, didn't we? More through your efforts than mine but still..."

She let another soft, warm laugh of her own slip past her full lips, this one coming to her easily. She may not have been a genius in the Hyuuga arts as her cousin Neji was... but she wasn't _completely_ harmless, however adorable she might seem. She wouldn't have survived in her cut-throat clan for the last eighteen years if she was as demure and delicate as her sweet face and shy mannerisms made her out to be.

"Yes," she said, her eyes brightening as they met Sasuke's again, the flush on her face somehow not abating in the least. "Yes, we might have been caged birds before but we set ourselves free in this matter--"

"Only," he murmured, "to find ourself in another cage entirely."

Damn, she kept forgetting why she couldn't mix metaphors together in his company. He always had a way of twining about like a snake and biting their heads off dexterously.

...Though perhaps she shouldn't be criticizing. After all, her own metaphoric powers weren't the most pleasing either.

"Still," she persisted, rising a little from the bed and overlooking the effect that a heavy mass of... heaviness straining the front of her dress would have on Sasuke's suddenly less uniform complexion. "Still, we made our own choices here. At least... mostly. We-- we decided that we were going to get married ourselves--"

(Even if it was only to start their own household, free of the interference of others.)

"--and we decided that we would move in together--"

(Even if it was less because they loved each other and more because they were all right with living like glorified roommates.)

"--and we should decide what our-- our future should be!"

(Even if it meant defying the very people who had carved out their past previously.)

"I mean--" she finally stuttered, her eyes going wide and her sweet face nakedly pleading as she looked towards her husband, "--don't you think that should be the case, Sasuke? I don't know if I can do this alone but if the two of us were to-- if we both decided to put our heads together again-- if we really came up with something cunning--"

* * *

Looking back, Hinata would often wonder what it was that led them to the decision that they would make here.

Was it something genetic? Was there, perhaps, something bred in their blood and bones that drew the two of them together irresistibly? Was there something about their long ago ancestors, those ancestral lines that had diverged from one another, that made them trust each other explicitly? Was there something about their twinned strange eyes that made them see each other in a light no one else had managed to yet broach? Was there something even beyond simple convenience that had made their eyes meet once upon a time and decide, yes, this was it, this is the exact, precise person in my life that I need to pull off my plans eventually?

Was it destiny? Had there been something written in the stars that had foretold this day's comings? Long ago, had some scribe looked up at the night stars and decided that, yes, that constellation meant that the upcoming harvest would go well, and that constellation meant that children born in this month would fare poorly, and that constellation meant that a series of incredibly unlikely events would come about that would lead some poor shmuck of a princess to get a sham marriage to a prince she barely knew to escape her father's oppressive thumb, only to realize she was even more trapped than previously...?

Or was it simply chemistry? Was there something within the air they breathed and the food they ate that would have led them to this moment eventually? Was it something in the water and the blood within their bodies that had led them, heads proudly held up as they had subtly defied their fate, to allow their hands to meet? Was there something somehow electric about the soft, taut touches they exchanged, day after day, that made strange receptors within their bodies stand up and spring to attention... waiting for the moment they made the most complete of physical exchanges...?

Perhaps neither of them would never full know. But if there was one thing that Hinata realized even then, it was this.

Her life-- which was already a roller-coaster of poorly explained plot-twists-- was about to get even more massively complicated here.

* * *

"But what--" Sasuke interrupted, coming up himself and drawing in a quick breath through barely parted lips, his languorous dark eyes hooded as he took in the image of his wife reclining quickly. The flush on his face hadn't abated in the least, and now, with the little pants he was making as his excitement grew and the mussed sheets beneath his lightly clad body slid underneath him...

Crazed weasels, Hinata told herself, though it didn't sound believable even in her own skull. He looks _far_ more like he's been attacked by crazed weasels than-- than--than tossed about in a bed with his head thrown back in ecstasy and some lucky, lucky, lucky girl about to rip his underwear off with nothing more than her _teeth_--

(Some distant part of her told her that reading all of those romance novels that Lady Ino had given to her after the wedding had been, not to put too fine a point on it, _influential_ recently.)

"--But what--" Sasuke plowed on, though sadly not into anyone in particular, "--are we going to do to put off our elders with their browing demands for children between us? What _can_ we do, truly? I thought we were doing a decent job in making everyone around us believe we could at least respectably be married to each other, but our respective clans both seem desperate to see us have-- have--"

Hinata's face went from rose red to salmon white in a record amount of time. Eventually, Sasuke spit the word out contemptuously, as though he were speaking the unspeakable in polite company.

"_Progeny._"

There it was. There it lay-- the word of doom presently. Faux-husband and faux-wife exchanged desperate looks at each other, as they felt their respective scrotum and uterus recoil instinctively.

Though Hinata loved the thought of having children someday, hopefully with someone she loved and with someone who could care for her somewhat as well-- frankly speaking, the thought of having children with a husband who seemed to only grudgingly tolerate her and who she was in a sham marriage with was... Terrifying. Horrifying. Frightening. Disturbing.

Possibly they needed to make a new word for how she felt right now. Terihorifrigdisturying. Something of that sort might have been enough to convey the dismay on both of their faces presently.

(If she was being truly honest with herself, Hinata might have admitted that her present terihorifriditurying was a bit overplayed. But psychological mechanisms being what they were, her conscious mind refused to let her unconscious even _display_ the least bit of that here.)

"W-well," she began desperately, her stutter rapidly increasing as her stress levels shot up through the roof, "I g-guess we just need to st-start making ourselves seem like we-we're even more in love. We've p-probably been too m-mellow in the future bef-before. So w-we need to st-start being more con-convin-convinc--"

Sasuke's finely shaped eyelid-- he was the sort of person on whom even eye-lids had sex appeal-- twitched slightly. "Are you saying that we need to be even more convincing about being madly in love? Begin speaking to the press so that our love story becomes even more celebrated? Dangle the promise of even more intimacy in front of the public so that our elders back off in fear of looking heavy-handed in front of our adoring audience? Perhaps even include a third wheel into the relationship so that people are so riveted by the thought of our parting forever to wonder why we haven't conceived a child yet? Perhaps even that oh-so-dashing Gaara of Suna?"

Hinata could see the diabolical brilliance of all those plans as easily as she could see the way Sasuke's jaw clenched at the mention of a third party. Which made sense, she decided. After all, even at the best of times, Sasuke was a misanthrope. He didn't want to put up with any more human contact than he absolutely had to, which was likely why he had married a girl who hardly ever spoke in the first place. The thought of another party involved in their marriage-- male or female-- might actually force him to engage in even more human contact, which was enough to put him in a mood for weeks.

It wasn't out of jealousy, naturally. Hinata squashed that thought as though it were a bug and she was wielding a boot of reason swiftly.

"T-that makes sense," Hinata began cautiously. In this modern age, royal families in Konoha-- though they still had considerable power and clout in lawmaking-- depended greatly on public perception to keep their peace with more democratic ruling parties, which were even now lead by 'Princess' Tsunade. The Uchiha and the Hyuuga might be the two most powerful and royal clans in Konoha but they would have to be fools to make themselves vulnerable to each other-- and lesser clans-- by appearing heavy-handed enough to demand descendants from what the press and public was largely convinced was an adorable young couple that was still flowering towards love on a public stage.

"It would," Sasuke replied sardonically, "though there would be some trouble in manipulating the press and our family and even more in manipulating Gaara, should we follow that lead. The press and the clans, if they found out, could eviscerate us verbally and financially. Gaara on the other hand..."

Hinata blanched. She was well aware that Gaara of Suna-- if truly pressed-- could possibly eviscerate them quite non-metaphorically. And he'd likely get away with it too, if he did it in his home territory.

(Suna, to put it lightly, put somewhat less of an burden on its press corps to judge the actions of royalty. In Konoha, the royal clans consulted withextremely well paid press secretaries before choosing what to wear, what political parties to endorse, what charities to get involved with, and what marriages to put together. In Suna, the royal clan-- singular-- might well execute anyone who had the nerve to report on any of those things. Therefore, most intelligent reporters in Suna had an inclination towards writing about riveting news stories about kittens on parades.)

"Then," Hinata began slowly, "m-maybe it would be best to leave the love triangle angle alone-- at least where Gaara is concerned. After all... there are other suitable candidates for that if we _really_ need to divert attention from the-- the reproduction issue. Like... like Lady Ino. Or Lord Shino. Or even..."

Sasuke's slightly sardonic smile tightened into a rictus on his face. "Even your 'brother' Neji?"

A flock of flamingos could have gotten lost on the blush coloring her cheeks. "He... he's always had a soft spot for me..."

"More like a hard spot," Sasuke muttered ungraciously, but then sighed and tilted his chin to get her to go on, a signal she took gratefully.

"H-hard or soft," Hinata mumbled, "he does still care for me. And if we needed his help... if _I_ told him that I would be carrying your child if all went ill..."

"And," Sasuke pointed out, "if the general public doesn't find the thought of you potentially mating with a man you publicly called _brother_ a few years back disturbing."

There was, Hinata had to admit, that problem.

Still, she persevered onwards with their plans for misdirection. "St-still, there are so many ways we could g-go about this without dragging some poor third party in to the mix. We could have a friend like Kiba involved. He wouldn't truly be interested in me... though I suppose that if _you_ intrigue him enough, we could have a _real_ love traingle-- or at least, linear line-- on our h-hands here..."

Without twitching a single muscle, her husband somehow managed to convey just how distressing such an outcome would be. But then, he had never been very fond of human beings or animals, let alone someone who had managed to combine the most exuberant traits of both species efficiently.

"Or," he said testily, after the moment of canine-inspired horror had passed, "we could do something far more effective altogether. We could go beyond these silly hodge-podge plans for a fake love triangle for a fake marriage and move onto a fake plan of pregnancy."

Some finally honed sense of danger in Hinata's mind-- some terribly well calibrated sense that had come about from years and years of living in a dangerous political clan when there had been all too many people interested in seeing her 'disposed of' permanently in order to install her younger sister as the true heir of the throne-- began to scream instantly.

_Don't ask!_ it warned. _Don't even think about it! Change the subject! Do a little strip-tease! Use your womanly charms to divert him completely!_

Distressed that her conscious mind had not done a good enough job suppressing all the thoughts that the bed and her husband's relative lack of clothes conjured up, Hinata plowed on desperately.

"What do you mean?" she asked in all innocence, as her Hyuuga sense began to ring the bells of doom ominously.

"I mean," Sasuke said-- and suddenly he was doing all _sorts_ of interesting things with the dark fall of hair across his exquisitely featured face and even his eye-lids were suddenly quirking into strangely sexual configurations and _she shouldn't have asked why did she ask was she a crazy woman had marriage driven her crazy_?!-- "that perhaps we should go about this whole pregnancy business as we did this whole marriage business. We pretended to be in love or whatever passes for love nowadays quite well, didn't we? And if we pretended to earnestly do what people who are in love do-- and begin to act as though we truly do little else when there is merely the two of us within a room--"

Hinata clutched the sheets before her as though they were her maiden virtue. Given how quickly they were slipping out of her hands, they might as well have been.

"I expect," Sasuke said slowly, "that we ought to try stimulating-- or even _having_-- sex sometime within the next few weeks."

Hinata simply looked at him, so startled that her face had been blanked of any human activity.

And the roller-coaster of poorly explained plot-twists that was her life began to slowly creak into activity.

* * *

**Author's note: **Heh, well, _that _was a hell of a lot of fun to write and with luck, there will be more to come! I can't wait until Gaara and Itachi enter the scene... they'll both have some very interesting agendas to pursue with both Sasuke and Hinata.

And as always, I would be very, very grateful for any reviews. Please make a writer that's re-entering the Naruto fandom feel welcome! Even if you've got little to say or think that my writing is awful, I'd still love to hear from you. 3


	2. Prep Work and Planning

Oh _wow._ First of all, a very big, hearty thank-you to everyone who was kind enough to leave me a review for the first chapter! I thought I was going to be largely ignored for being about as difference from a Naruto fic BNF as, oh, a lightning bug is from lightning. But ridiculous heaps of thanks goes to HeroFluffy, McNutty, Wedgits, Puppy, Kira Acumichi, K-Child, Sapphirewind, StrangerCalling, ImmortalRin, Emerald, Franny, Wistfulmemories, Raynos and SafireGriffon. I would probably not have bothered to write this second chapter without your support.

Also, small note. I can't promise that updates for this fic will be consistent. How quickly I update will wax and wane due to my school schedule, my work schedule and interest from readers/reviewers. So if you like this story, please let me know so I have an extra reason to _not_ feel guilty about writing this as opposed to, say, learning more about statistical path analysis. (Ugh.) **Please review if you read this fic!** It only takes a second and it really makes my day.

So without further ado...

* * *

**Title: Lords and Ladies, Chapter 2.1  
Fandom: Naruto  
Series: Lords and Ladies  
Characters/Pairings: Sasuke/Hinata/Gaara, Unrequited Naruto/Hinata & Neji/Hinata & Itachi/Hinata, Naruto/Sakura, Ino, TBA  
Rating: R  
Summary: Lady Hinata had expected that her life would change after being married to Lord Sasuke in a sham marriage meant to throw off the chains of their respective families. But she had _no_ idea that the greatest of worries was only now coming...  
Note: The pairings in this fic will be pretty much ridiculous, yes. But if you're going to write a soap opera, you may as go all the way! And this is a purely silly, frothy, fun modern-day AU that takes place with Konoha and Suna still intact but rearranged in strange ways.**

* * *

The first time Hinata had fallen in love-- truly, deeply, madly, passionately, and in retrospect, quite stupidly-- she had been only sixteen and subsequently just a little bit more naive than she would soon be in another two years.

Such naivety didn't make her an innocent in any way, not even sexually. (Members of the Hyuuga clan, after all, tended to be exposed to the facts of life early. It wasn't hard to be blase about something as mundane as human sexuality after the 34th time they accidentally used their Byakugan where they shouldn't have and caught sight of something they _truly_ did not wish to see in the bed-chambers of their next-of-kin. If he had lived long enough, Freud would have had a field day with Hinata's family.) But to a certain extent, hardened though she was to to political maneuvering that would have made Machiavelli throw his hands up in despair, there had still remained something strangely untouched and untarnished within her, some seed of romantic longing that clung to her with strange tenacity.

She had known, even when she was young, that being a romantic and a heiress of the Hyuuga was a contradiction in almost too many ways to number. Setting aside the rather piranha-like nature of her clan, there was always the matter of royal blood to be considered. As far as practicing the hidden arts of the Hyuuga clan went, she was about as useful to them as useful as a chocolate kettle attached to a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest. But as far as her passably good looks and impeccable manners and even more impressive blood line went...

Heiresses came attached with enormous fortunes for a reason, Hinata had learned early on. She'd resigned herself to marry some toad-faced man twice her age and thrice her girth around when she had turned thirteen.

And then she'd met an insignificant orphan who had carved out a stormy existence within the halls of the Uchiha palace as a palace guard who, on the whole, was more trouble than any number of invading hordes would be.

She had been a princess. He had been a peasant. She had been torpid. He had been invigorating. She had been trapped in conventions. He flouted them completely. She was all too often a distant viewer of the world, watching it pass her by slowly. He threw himself into everything he did, refusing to let something as insignificant as centuries of tradition keep him from whatever needed his peculiar brand of expertise. She had been like a woman drowning in a sea of royal regulations and stipulations. He had been like a rope thrown to people like her, like an arm outstretched that reached towards her, that promised to take away from everything in her life that could wrench her in two eventually.

She had first locked eyes on him during a royal ball, when she had twirled in the arms of some insignificant nobleman not in the official art book and he had fended off various attempts to be thrown out of the proceedings by people who realized he had a right to be there and still wanted him gone. And when he had smiled at her for the first time while struggle in a sea of outraged palace guards...

She had assumed that destiny would take neatly take care of all the practicalities.

As it turned out, she had been completely wrong.

* * *

"Well?" Sasuke finally asked, his brilliant eyes still gazing at her, a tension so fierce it could have been a physical force strumming through his body. "What do you think? Is it a plausible plan or not? We _have_ been married for months now and even you don't wish to-- even if you wouldn't like to--"

Under more normal circumstances, Hinata would have been somewhat bemused to see her husband struggle with speaking for once. As it was, however, she felt more as though a thin veil of frost had been drawn about her senses and her skull, freezing out the outside world and making everything that went on beyond the veil of her memories turn thin, colorless and wholly unreal.

"Even if you do not wish to _consummate_ this marriage," Sasuke finally muttered, eyes far away from her own at the moment, "we can at least pretend we've attended to that eventuality. Some creative moaning and probably a few stains on the sheets when we head into the royal palace in a few days could convince the more dim-witted among the public-- which is to say, pretty much all of the public-- and give us breathing space to understand more of what move to make eventually."

If her mind hadn't felt frozen at the moment, Hinata would have paused him here. She might have stammered out a question about just how far this 'pretending' would go or exactly what pitch and volume of moaning was expected from her and even tease him about who would be contributing what fluids to disturb which chamber maids. Would they take turns with nocturnal emissions? Would it require any sort of food coloring? It seemed a prudent question to ask, seeing as what passed for planning among aristocracy.

But the world was like ice beyond her skin. She felt so numb, suddenly.

And then Sasuke did something that she often thought that she would never fail to wonder and be surprised at, that truly took her breath away with its clarity and its rarity. As far as she knew, he had never really done this for anyone else, and even in the darkness she felt she was wallowing in now, it felt as though someone was extending a rope for her to cling to momentarily.

He gave her a sweet and crooked smile from beneath his dark bangs and let what he really felt peek out quietly.

"I would be kind to you," he said, his eyes calm and watchful and his fingers curling against the bed-sheets slowly. "I know I may not be the person you truly wanted but at the least... at the least, I wouldn't hurt you if I could help it. Not in our marriage bed. Not anywhere you would want to be."

She didn't need to use the powers of sight she had been gifted by her bloodline to see that he was, for once, being sincere. She could sense it as though it were a physical force flowing from him to her, connecting them through a fragile and subtle thread that persevered through everything.

It was strange but during moments like these, Hinata sometimes wondered if it was possible to love him beyond the physical facts of his body, and if her urge to sometimes melt within his skin meant more than mere... mere...

Like a shy bird eluding the wind, Hinata let that thought pass form her swiftly.

"I'll think about it," Hinata finally promised softly, though there was grateful sadness in her eyes as she stared at her husband solemnly. And when Sasuke curtly nodded what passed for a _thank you_ from him, she finally eased herself out of the bed and went to dress for the day properly.

* * *

She dressed carefully for what was coming next, as though there was some protective quality to each of the delicate garments she clasped to her body, from the ornate silk robe she wore below her gorgeously patterned pearl-and-midnight kimono to the simple tabi she put upon her feet. Unlike most noble ladies of her station, she dressed alone and kept her eyes demurely away from the mirror as she went about her business of pretending all was well for the world, only turning to face its silvered surface after there was nothing left to be done.

A sad little ghost seemed to gaze back at her, expression quiet and contemplative and resigned to whatever else might be coming towards it. Its pearl-gray eyes were enormous and fringed by long, coal-dark lashes that looked like smudged charcoal against its pale, milk-white skin. Its features were slender and slightly drawn and almost achingly fragile, peculiarly pitiable in the way the curve of the soft nose contrasted against the line of the bloodless cheek and the faint outline of the lip. Its hair was black and thin and melted down to its shoulders in strands that were so polished, they may have well been spun of glass. And there was good breeding and grace apparent in every single curve of its body, from the way it held a fan demurely in its frail hands to the flowing lines its kimono made upon its curvaceous form, even to the way it kept its neck perfectly straight even as it had dressed.

It would have been nice-looking-- perhaps even sort of pretty-- were it not for the expression on its face.

Finally, it smiled, so that it would look more normal, and something not unlike charm shone through the hollowed constraint.

There, Hinata thought, after the necessary muscles had moved around her lush mouth. That's the image that others expect.

Then she was walking, and walking, and walking some more, in the dignified gait of a lady of the manor who had every right to be wherever she wanted to be. She simply ignored the stares of the commoners, or smiled serenely as she passed the hallowed halls of her husband's manse into the streets of the village and the stares of the people, not slowing in the least she made her way to her destination.

And finally, on the outskirts of the minor Uchiha estate she and her husband lived on, she boldly pressed onwards to the house of an old friend, a small house where chickens ran about on the front steps and voices were never curbed out of consideration for thousands of years of tradition and a man with a brilliant shock of blond hair and wild, warm eyes sat playing with a pale-haired young infant of only a few weeks.

A son with pale hair the color of cherry blossoms in the spring, not the color of dark plums plucked in the height of summer.

It was a difference that could very well break her heart every time she saw it.

And then the man she had loved-- still loved-- looked up from playing with his son to call out joyfully.

"Lady Hinata!" he cried, and she could hear his delight where she stood, feeling it course through her entire body, until she felt as though she could have been levitated by the force of his personality alone. "It's good to see you again! You went missing for the last few weeks and I don't mind telling _you_, you've been missing more than a few good home-cooked meals. You know whatever slop they fling at you up on the hill isn't worth any of Sakura's cooking. At least," he corrected himself, throwing a quick grin at her, "when she isn't trying to get revenge on me. I've never even known anyone who could make a slice of okiniyamiki that could serve as a siege weapon before I met her but as soon as we get back to the royal palace, I'll have all the military men I canon that chop-chop, you know, really soon."

She'd never met anyone who made her feel as happy or as sad as he did; if she hadn't been so well bred, she might have laughed through her tears. But calling upon centuries and centuries of selective breeding somehow allowed her to stand her ground where she stood, instead of flinging herself to him and begging him-- or asking him-- or telling him-- or commanding him--

It wouldn't make a difference anyway. He loved where he loved-- always had and always would. There was nothing she or anyone else could do to make him abandon what he loved-- which was precisely why she had loved him in the first place.

But at the least, it was something that could help her now-- that could even guide her towards the destiny she still struggled for eventually. And so finally, after gathering herself up and staring as bravely as she could into a face as bright as the sun, she managed the most important words in the day.

"Good afternoon, Naruto," she said, her eyes locked on him and her face gone as still as a stone. "And thank you for that offer but I-I won't stay so very long. I was simply hoping we could speak and you could h-help me on something that I need..."

His open, honest face quickly turned puzzled in the brilliant morning light, as he bounced his child in his arms. Hinata considered her next words carefully.

And then a smile wandered across her face like a crab with nimble claws. After all, who said honesty couldn't be the best policy?

(That is, aside from almost all of her family.)

"Something," she finally murmured, "that only you can help me in."

* * *

**Author's Note**: Reviews are nice, reviews are fun, review or I'll get my shot-gun!

Or, um, not so much really. ;) But I truly do love and appreciate all the reviews I get and I love hearing from my readers. Please let me know if you're reading this... it makes me very nervous to see that so many people are putting this story on their alert-less but comparatively few are reviewing! I keep wondering if people really like this story after all or if they're silently reading along to see it become a flaming train-wreck of rancid stupidity eventually. Reviews are love and they really do spur me on to make my randomly timed posts more frequently. And thanks again to all the lovely people who made me so excited about writing this fic in the first place.


	3. Reconnaissance and Construction

The deformed fruit of my heedless imagination manages to continue to grow at alarming rates. And after taking in some very good criticism suggested by kind reviewers who noted that chapter 2 of L&L went nowhere fast, I'm trying to revamp the fic to include more plot momentum. And thus we have chapter 3, which hopefully ends in a cliff-hanger important enough to set up not one or two but _three_ major story lines. Here's hoping people enjoy reading as much as I did writing!

And as always, much love goes to the very kind reviewers of past chapters and to anyone else who drops me a line telling me what they think of the fic. It makes me very happy to now that there's people out there who enjoy my ridiculous scribbles and every time they leave me a comment or constructive criticism, my reviewers are doing me a great kindness.

**Title: Lords and Ladies, Chapter 3  
Fandom: Naruto  
Series: Lords and Ladies  
Characters/Pairings: Sasuke/Hinata/Gaara, Neji, Itachi, Naruto, Sakura, Ino, TBA  
Rating: R  
Summary: Hinata had expected that her life would change after being married to Lord Sasuke in a sham marriage meant to throw off the chains of their respective families. But she had _no_ idea that the greatest of worries was only now coming...**

* * *

Minato was, contrary to what his Uzumaki genes would have previously indicated, the closest thing to the platonic ideal of a calm-to-the-point-of-being-comatose baby that Hinata had ever seen. Short of an attack by flesh-tearing zombies or the lack of a warm bottle of milk when he was particularly hungry, he was more apt to coo than to cry at anything. If Hinata knew ahead of time that this could have been her child, she would have plunged into the whole child-bearing business far more enthusiastically.

But the possibility of that had left her far back and she saw no reason to keep hopelessly dreaming.

Not when she was awake, at least.

Still, with Minato gently pressed against the curve of her breast and his wide blue eyes looking with slothful trust into her own as she bottle-fed him, Hinata could see why it was that so many other women could take to children so gladly. It must be pleasant to be able to look into the face of your own child and dream of the many possible futures they could have, none of which would feature being used as a dynastic pawn eventually.

Naruto broke through her musings in much the way he did everything else-- very, very enthusiastically. And somehow, when he was talking about his son, his normal excitable tone seemed to increase even more in volume and emphasis, until sitting next to him felt vaguely like catching a blow-horn against every orifice in her body simultaneously. Hinata would have complained but hopeless devotion and love aside, seeing the way he lit up when talking about his son was heartrendingly sweet.

"I'm pretty sure," he began, "that Minato's gonna grow up to be the number one most terrific future ninja guard that the world has _ever known._ Watch out, sand brats from Suna! My son's gonna grow up to kick yer ass _so hard_, your own kids'll be feeling it for years!"

His face was sincere. His gestures were triumphant. And his voice rang out in a pitch more often heard in 12 year old castrato choir boys who could masquerade as little girls easily.

Hinata managed not to laugh but only just-- something, she realized to her surprise, that Naruto observed readily.

"Oh, you can laugh now, Lady Hinata," he went on seriously, "but I know what I've talking about. My kid's old man is a pretty good hand at being a royal guard himself--"

(Which Hinata was willing to concede was the truth, if you only looked at all the times when Naruto had saved people's lives and forgot about all the times when he had driven them so mad with rage that they had threatened to throw themselves off a cliff out of spite.)

"--and with his mother, he's guaranteed to be smarter than me!"

(Loved him though she still did, Hinata had to admit that would not be a difficult mountain of ambition to conquer.)

"I swear, as soon as he's likely, I'll teach him more jutsus than even the Sharingan knows! Oh, he's gonna be kicking that asshole emo avenger's kid before they can even--"

(Hinata had to raise an eyebrow at that, even as she stifled a smile. She'd never heard Sasuke called _that_ before, but she'd be damned if it wasn't oddly fitting.)

"Uh-- uh-- sorry Lady Hinata. I swear, I'll tell Minato to stay away if you've got any daughters. I'm bet they'll be just as nice as you are. And obviously just as pretty!"

(And she couldn't help her furious blush now, cursing her poorly regulated blood flow before casting about for some safer topic of conversation.)

"I'm sure," she finally managed, after she reigned her capillaries in, "that Minato will grow to be just as... as wonderful as you are, Naruto. And I'm sure any Uchiha children will be very, um, happy to have him as a play-mate." (At least if they didn't take after Sasuke and decide from the age of eleven on to hate most of the world.) "But Naruto, if you don't mind... I-I was wondering if I could ask you a more personal question?"

More than anything, Naruto looked downright baffled by the idea that not everyone would be as interested as he was in Minato's every flail, gurgle, and squirt of god-alone-knows-what-in-the-world-that-m

ight-be. In fact, given the way one side of his face lifted at her as the other one drooped, he was either having a stroke right in front of her eyes or failing to process the idea adequately. Finally, though, he seemed to reconcile with it. "_Huh._ Okay. What do you want to know?"

"Well," she said delicately, "it's probably nothing. But you've spent more time in the palace recently than I have, what with your duties as a guard and y-your-- wife. I know you've taken a leave of absence for your son but at least you've seen the last few weeks go by first-hand. I haven't spent much time there at all, ever since I was wed to Sasuke." (Especially since the chance to get away from the court and her family was precisely _why_ she had wed Sasuke.) "Therefore, I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the changes that have been going on as of late...? It just seems so... ah... so interesting to think about going back to all that excitement, overall..."

A startling look of fox-like cunning seemed to pass over Naruto's usually cheerful face, which made Hinata blink and try to capture in her mind before it passed away. "_Huh._ So you wanna go back to the court after only a few months of marriage? I guess with Sasuke, it's a wonder you even stayed this long in the manor the first place..."

(That last line might have been almost subtle, had he not followed it by wriggling his eyebrows to and fro, like a nest of crazed caterpillars had suddenly taken roost on his face.)

Hinata knew that most other well-bred women-- especially those that didn't have the fires of a terribly deep and possibly ludicrous love burning deep inside them-- would have been standing up at this point and possibly hurting him, or at least asking others to hurt him for them, for that insinuation. Instead, it was all Hinata could do to hold in her giggle, even as something trembled fast in her.

He was so ridiculous and she was...

She wasn't all that much better, for all her breeding.

And when she was with him, she didn't mind being that way in the least.

Nobody else had made her feel that way before and she didn't hold out much hope for ever finding it again either.

Finally, after a bit of brushing, she carried on as she cradled her first love's son in her arms. "It's... it's something along those lines, Naruto. And in any case, I know there's been rather a lot of... drama about the palace of late. I was hoping you could tell me precisely what's going on, so that I can avoid any blunders when I go back. I don't want to stir up too much trouble, after all."

He gazed at her with nakedly incredulity, as though she had just stood up and declared herself Hat, Ruler of All Emo Avengers Everywhere, and done a funny little dance on her knees. "Why would you want to do _that_? It just makes life more interesting!"

She didn't necessarily disagree but she had long since learned that it was a great deal easier to see _other_ people grapple with interesting times than experience them herself. Smiling patiently at him, Hinata tried again... with an added bit of _oomph_ added.

After all, she might not have been the most beautiful princess around... but when Hinata needed to, she could wield the whole 'delicate damsel in distress' schtick very effectively.

"I agree Naruto," she murmured, sweetly enough to coax adorable woodland creatures out of the shrubbery to do her laundry. "But sadly, not everyone's as b-b-"

(She played up the stutter for all it was worth now, quivering her enormous, pearly eyes at him all the while. Such a move might have seemed unlikely but she had mastered it nonetheless.)

"-_brave_ as you are. I'm so afraid I'll go there and get tangled up with all these terrible people and-- and-- oh, I really _need_ you to help me. P-p-_please_ tell me you will? I don't want to get in trouble with anybody, not when I don't have y-you to protect me..."

After a lifetime of pathetic stuttering, Hinata had learned to make the most of it by wringing as much pathos as she could from her misbehaving mouth. Sasuke had rolled his eyes hard enough to dislocate them when she had first unveiled the tactic to him, but even he had to admit it was surprisingly canny. And it certainly was working here, what with the way Naruto's cocky face almost instantaneously transformed into one that suggested that, by hurting her feelings, he may as well have kicked a puppy through a plate-glass window.

"Well," he blustered, waving his hands wildly in the air as though to ward off tears, "well, when you put it that way, I can't say no! Anything you need, Lady Hinata, you can take from me. Really," he murmured, in another heart-beat, with another and even sweeter smile. "Really, anything you need from me."

And there was that soft little smile she had always liked on his face; his eyes wide and his words sincere. In a place where everyone had their masks and their secrets, he had never had anything at all, had never held in him an ounce of deceit. And here he was, leaning in closer, as though to tell her something secret and sincere. Leaning in, closer and closer, close enough to breach what remained of their distance, close enough to lean over and press his lips softly...

"...All you gotta do is ask me," Naruto said through a sunny smile, reaching out to caress his sleeping child's cheek. "Me and my wife. We'll both help you any way you need."

_Don't be a fool_, she told herself, heart suddenly stinging. _He loves her so and now he's just a friend and nothing more. I gave up on that dream months ago._

And despite herself, she had to look down into the face of the innocent child now falling asleep in her arms. Just to ground that knowledge in something.

_This isn't what I came for. This isn't what he can give me._

But he could, at least, help her in one way.

And her eyes were calm and grave and firm as they drew up from Naruto's child to his trusting face.

"Thank you, Naruto, for all your help. And now, will you tell me what you know and heard of about Gaara of Suna, please?"

* * *

There was, in that glorious hour she spent with Naruto in that afternoon, five important pieces of information she learned about Gaara, Emperor of Suna, Conquerer of the Sands, the Magistrate of the Desert, and all around apparent emotional train-wreck.

First, he had overtake even Lord Itachi of the Uchiha clan as the supreme young buck of the court for as long as he stayed in Konoha as an honored guest. Since Itachi was someone who possessed what could charitably be called a muted sense of emotions, he didn't seem in the least bothered by having significantly fewer numbers of the public and the court fawning over him. But the longer Gaara stayed in Konoha, the more the long-held sense of power and prestige in the government shifted and the more the Uchiha clan as a whole bristled at his presence.

Second, it was rumored that Gaara's means of gaining power had been somewhat... nontraditional at best. He hadn't even officially been in the inheritance of his father, the late and largely unlamented fourth emperor of Suna, but he had somehow gone from being another bastard son to ruling the empire after a surprisingly brief struggle for the throne. Given what else had been rumored about his 'inheritance' from his father, the lack of struggle against him might make a certain terrible sense...

Third, his interpersonal skills could be politely called eccentric and less politely (as Naruto put it)as though Gaara wouldn't know polite conversation if it came around looking like a tap-dancing hooker with a false eye and gleefully stabbed him to death. Apparently, he had the thousand mile stare of grizzled war veteran who had seen things Man Was Not Meant To Know and the conversational skills of a dead tree stump, and had managed to once make _Hiashi Hyuuga_ break out into a cold-sweat. Despite herself, Hinata could not help but be impressed.

Firth, all of the major powers in Konoha were already vying for his approval-- especially the Hyuuga. Long the second runner-up to the Uchiha clan in the great political race of royal Konoha, it seemed as though Hinata's birth family was trying to claw their way to first place through currying the favor of this new man. Knowing what she did about her family, Hinata could not help but worry, even though she was temporarily out of their sphere of influence. Though at least she now knew why her father had been there long enough to have an emotional reaction to a person, something that usually took him a few decades of acquaintance.

And finally, Gaara was apparently quite the looker. Not that Naruto, of all people, put it that way. But being significantly smarter than a stick-insect, Hinata had been able to put together Naruto's exaggerated faces of animal disgust with his whines about his wife's all too appreciative eyes and his descriptions of how the various ladies of the court had been fawning over Gaara. It actually put a rather pleasing spin on what Naruto had described as ketchup-colored hair and a face that looked like a flesh-colored granite slab.

(Incidentally, Hinata also learned, among other things, that child-birth was an awesome experience as long as your wife didn't have super-strength and break most of your fingers while going through it, that his son's still developing lungs (when he chose to use them) clearly came from the Uzumaki bloodline, that Naruto had a particularly itchy bunion on his right foot's big toe that simply wouldn't go away, and that Minato was prone to fits of explosive diarrhea that impressed even his old man. She loved Naruto dearly but she had to admit that he wasn't always the most coherent-- or even understandable-- story-teller. On the other hand, she rather thought that if he could simply throw in a few supernatural elements-- such as vampires that could sparkle in the sun-- he might make a tidy fortune out of that tendency. Other writers had capitalized on less through the years.)

By the end of her little information extraction session, she was disappointed but not particularly surprised. She had, after all, set out for this exercise in fruitless love and masochism to learn more about Gaara of Suna, though being able to pine over Naruto had been a not-insignificant bonus. In the hours since she and her husband had knocked the idea about, it had steadily been gaining more ground in her mind. After all, an emperor-- especially a handsome young bachelor who was likely aswim in intrigue and who probably bedded more women in a week than most womanizers saw in years-- seemed like the ideal person to rope into her plans. She had been half-hoping that she could get the public to forget about her singularly inactive reproductive system by silently lurking in Gaara's shadow during photo-ops and sidling up to him during a few public events, pretending to whisper naughty nothings into his ears while actually asking him where the bathroom was located.

A person could get a lot done by being eminently forgettable to all the right people. Hinata managed to accomplish a surprising amount that way.

But seeing as how Gaara of Suna was apparently even worse than all the rumors she had heard about them over the years...

Well, Hinata could take risks when she had to, but the operative words were _had to_. She wasn't about to involve herself with some misanthropic half-mad genius god boy if she could avoid it, even as she had to admit to the irony of that sentence given the state of her marriage.

Before she left, heart heavy with disappointment and mind racing to find a new solution to her problems, Hinata kissed both Naruto and Minato on their cheeks and promised to visit again.

"You better," Naruto said, chuckling as he took a still-sleeping child into his arms. "You stayed away long enough to get me really worried! I was starting to think that maybe Sasuke had blackmailed you into getting married to him after all and you accidentally fell into a coma after realizing that it was really _Itachi_ that had married you and now you were being shared by two brothers and you're trying to get out by seducing a more powerful man to take you away from your erotic prison of sex, sin and salacious seduction!"

The sad thing, Hinata reflected, was that her real life wasn't actually less ridiculous. She assured Naruto she hadn't, told him that she had liked that plot in Icha Icha the Syndicated Series as well, kissed him on the cheek again after pretending to suffer short-term memory loss, and walked away from what she loved most in the world while pretending she didn't want to look back.

* * *

She walked home in a dreary mood, stopping once in a while to give money to a beggar or ruffle the hair of a photogenic child or exchange a few polite words with people who were often terrible at "casually" taking photos of her at a distance. Most of them probably wouldn't have even been able to tell that the usual glimmer in her eyes had been hastily suppressed or that her voice was flatter and lower and even quieter than usual, as though she had been disappointed yet again.

She and Sasuke clearly could not use Gaara, that much was certain. They had enough to worry about between the public and their respective and equally pushy families, without worrying about reigning in a mad man. But what else could they do? Who else could they use? Sasuke would either actively protest or drag his heels about involving someone else into their charade of matrimony; she knew him and his general loathing of 99.999 of humanity well enough to recognize that. And their life was wearying enough when their clans were at each other's throats for the slightest power advantage in Konoha. God help both Sasuke and herself if both the Hyuuga and the Uchiha actually agreed on something... especially when that something had to do with _their_ reproductive systems.

That simply left the mind-boggling option of simply faking consummation. Or actually going through with it.

Luckily, when Hinata needed to be, she could think very, _very_ deeply. And by the time she had finished deeply thinking about everything she could before she had to turn to that subject, she happily found herself back in her home, nestled in her private quarters and rooting through the liquor cabinet.

Other people could-- and often did-- say many negative things about Hinata's husband. They said he was rude. That he was often focused to the point of being cruel. That he was unsympathetic, seemingly unfeeling and a total boor, with all the social skills of someone who must have been raised by wolves who soon disowned him out of embarrassment. Hinata could even agree with most of those items, save perhaps for the one on wolves.

(She had met his clan and none of them had gone about on four legs, had six nipples and howled at the moon. If they had, they might have been more pleasant. And hilarious, what with the extra nipples.)

But if Sasuke had one shining point of redemption, it was this. He always stocked high quality liquor and he wasn't afraid to share it. And right now, Hinata was feeling the urgent need to avail herself of her husband's generosity and kindness.

And in fact, when she spotted Sasuke out of the corner of her eye, apparently having a nap on a comfortable old couch in her room as he was increasingly likely to do, she smiled and poured out a drink to bring to him. Misery loved company, after all, and pound for pound, she knew no one who could extrude as much surly apathy as he did.

It annoyed and bothered most people but Hinata had long become reconciled to Sasuke's moods and had even come to take a strange pleasure in trying to talk him out of them. As far as she was concerned, after all, he had the right idea most of the time, even if he went about alleviating it the wrong way. Life honest _was_ usually morbid, messy, muzzled and miserable and at least when Sasuke brooded, he brooded with enviable purpose. Hinata preferred to try optimistic treachery but she appreciated Sasuke's method with the infinite cruelty of the world. She could even watch him grouse for hours, trying to help his distress while noting his every twitch and complaint with the rapt attention of a spectator at a sporting event. Hinata to Sasuke was not unlike a Canadian to a curling match.

Mutual dismay at the state of the world might have sounded like a strange reason to enjoy a person's company but so far, it had worked for them.

So she turned.

Called out his name.

Took ten brisks steps towards his chair to tell him he had a more-concrete-than-usual reason to be unhappy again.

And saw a figure turn to her that made her very breath constrict in her chest.

A young man had been sitting in her parlor the entire time, silent and watching her every flicker, falter and footstep. His wine-dark eyes were as arrows pinning her down, and the cruel memory of the curve of his lips could have kept her there. His hair was short and smooth and dark, falling at an angle against his snow-white neck. Faint lines of exhaustion cut across his otherwise youthful and beautifully proportioned face, and he kept one scarred hand curled against a heart she had once thought that she...

He was young and beautiful and stark and terrible and she had hoped to never see him again.

In many ways, he looked rather like her husband. But Hinata more than knew the difference.

"Good evening, princess," Itachi murmured patiently. "Have you come from outside just now? I've been waiting quite a while for this moment."

She would have replied but she could not speak just yet.

The glass shattered in her hand almost noiselessly.

* * *

**Author's Note**: And all of a sudden, this fic ran away with my imagination to go someplace even _I_ didn't foresee. Suffice to say that Itachi's confrontation with Hinata might be a little more, um, _tense_ than the last few chapters have been. But at the very least, it'll hopefully be interesting and set the slightly-lagging plot spinning ahead. I don't know when chapter 4 will go up but I hope it'll be scary and sexy enough to be worth the wait!

(And believe em, I know that having Hinata eventually be paired with both Sasuke and Gaara was pushing the boundries of reality. Setting Itachi after her is _really _stretching credulity. But what the hell, it _is _a soap opera. And what's a soap opera without some crazy twists? Although it would be nice to hear from my readers about who you think Hinata should be with in the end...)

Oh, and **Winterkaguya**? That 'emo avenger' line was just for you. Thank you for your hilarious r&r!

And as always, please leave a review if you liked this fic. I could use the pick-me up in these dark days of stress and you'd be doing me a personal kindness here. Please make a poor graduate student happy! ;)


	4. Replusion and Attraction

I'm putting this chapter up a little sooner than expected but I've got something to celebrate. Thanks to the magic of Jewish holidays, I've got two whole weeks of school off, which makes me incandescently giddy with glee. Life is good and gave me just enough time and inspiration to finish this chapter early.

Admittedly, this chapter does have a major about-face in terms of tone as compared to earlier, more explicitly comic chapters. But Itachi does have a rather interesting sense of humor and I had a ridiculously good time penning Hinata's show-down with him. As adorable as she and Sasuke are together, I have a feeling that Itachi/Hinata is turning into my evil OTP...

And thanks again goes to all the kind people who have been reading and reviewing so far. I'm still in a state of grateful shock over how many reviews I received for the last chapter! Thank you so much for being such a wonderful audience and I hope this chapter lives up to my previous teasing. ;)

**Title: Lords and Ladies, Chapter 4  
Fandom: Naruto  
Series: Lords and Ladies  
Characters/Pairings: Itachi/Hinata, Sasuke/Hinata/Gaara, Cast  
Rating: R  
Summary: Hinata had expected that her life would change after being married to Sasuke in a sham marriage meant to throw off the chains of their respective families. But she had _no_ idea that the greatest of worries was only now coming...  
Note: This chapter features a few traces of a dubiously consenting sexual situation. There's nothing graphic, but please tread lightly if it's a personal trigger.**

* * *

Once upon a time, when she had been sixteen, and her body had been given over to his spider hands, so very gently and patiently.

* * *

_"I've-- I've never felt this way before, my lord. Not about __anybody_. As though every time I look at him, I'm simply-- simply gazing into the heart of the light. Looking. And waiting. And hoping."

"Those are strong words of fidelity indeed, princess. But not uncommon, not at your age. I do not feel inclined to allow you to worry, not when it shall fade eventually."

"No, n-not this. Not so easily. Do you really feel as though s-something like this could mean so little, be so-- so shallow? When to comes to a girl of my-- my feeling?"

"You may label yourself a woman now, I suppose, if you truly feel so deeply. But though I take a certain... joy in your happiness now, I remain puzzled as to why you confide in me."

"Because... because I wanted to tell someone. And you're a f-friend. A good friend. And I-- I would greatly appreciate your... your help here."

* * *

He was still looking at her now, as she raised a hand slick with blood to her trembling lips, as though ashamed of something.

* * *

_"Are you sure? Truly sure? Do you know what you're entrusting to me?"_

"P-please, my lord. Please think of as a-- a sign of my trust in you. My g-gratitude. And my humble way of begging for your h-help here."

"...Then if we do this, will you at least cease to call me 'my lord'? On your lips it falls so unnaturally."

"I... then what would you have me call you, d-dear sir?"

"I've know you from your birth, princess, and our families are already intertwined neatly. I believe my name would be appropriate now. So please, call me--"

* * *

The past was the past and the present was the present and _he_ was no Naruto: nothing she wished to hold on to, nothing worth remembering.

* * *

_"Can you feel that, princess? It's the beat of my heart. When there's nothing left between us, you can hear it so clearly."_

"I-I-I'm glad we're d-doing this, I-Itachi. Otherwise, I-I would never have so easily l-learned my basic anatomy."

"Do you know that when you stutter and try to make me laugh at the same time, you're sound so ridiculously endearing?"

"N-nobody ever t-told me that before. But I-I had the feeling."

* * *

He used to take her breath away and did so even now. As though she were drowning in the reservoir of her lungs, slowly losing everything.

* * *

_"You're not nearly as much of an insipid and humorless innocent as I thought you were, Hinata. And nowhere near as timid either."_

"N-no, I am. At least, I have my m-moments. But I-I can be brave too... when I need to be."

* * *

In the present, she picked out the slivers of glass embedded in her shaking hand with grim and quiet efficiency.

* * *

_"You needn't worry about stuttering, fair lady. You need not even speak to me. Simply close your eyes and let me touch you. I will give what you seek."_

* * *

And now, there was nothing she wanted to say yet so she said nothing at all, keeping her eyes away from his as she stared down at her body bleeding. And he in turn simply reclined and watched her, his dangerous eyes hooded and his unearthly face absolutely still, as though it would take much too much effort to stand up or speak or piece together a woman he had once again torn apart cleanly.

Not that she expected him to. The Crown Prince of Konoha never did what he did not wish to do, and she had no illusions about influencing him here.

She spoke only when she turned away and began to heal herself with her bare knowledge of medicinal arts, only allowing her lips to tremble where she was sure he could not see. He was a prodigy and a prince and the pride of his house, but she knew there was at least one thing she could do that even his Sharingan could never hope to. She could see through flesh and bone in a way he couldn't dream of and though it was a cold comfort, it was enough to temporarily keep her on her feet.

And when she began to speak, her words so low and so smooth and so cold that it would have shocked everyone used to the sweet, prim, innocent blue blood she mimicked, to that woman who had a lawfully deflowered body and an untarnished soul and hands cleansed of all sin and cruely.

"W-why have you come here, Lord Itachi? Have we done anything in particular to m-merit your g-gracious presence currently?"

On the clean surface of that sentence, her words seemed all sweetness and light, all sparkling innocence and polite conformity. If a person did not know what Hinata was capable of-- and she made damn sure that few people knew what she was capable of-- they might have thought the sliver of insolence in that statement entered accidentally.

Judging from the wan smile that graced his face, Itachi wasn't fooled so easily. But then, he never had been. The sight his eyes boasted could have shamed members of her family.

"Good evening to you too," he dryly replied, though she could see a flicker of amusement rise in those dark Uchiha eyes, always laden with mystery. "I'm glad to see your time with my brother has already degraded your capacity for civilized speech. And I'm actually here for a surprise inspection. We in Clan Uchiha believe in efficiency and apparently, there's no better method for getting results than terrifying your members into productivity."

She stared at him for a very long, blank, almost hushed moment before realizing that this was what passed for a sense of humor for him. Keeping out of his way for the past few months had simply eroded her ability to recognize it.

Even so, she couldn't keep the shock out of her voice as she replied. "Efficiency? _P-productivity_? My lord, w-what exactly are we meant to be producing?"

And when he gave her a thin, wolfish, somehow terrifyingly _tight_ smile in turn, Hinata remembered just why she had wanted to forget his way of teasing her in the first place. "That would be none other than the next generation of extraordinarily gifted Uchiha-Hyuuga hybrids, sister-in-law. Between my brother's latent capacities and your blood line, you had to know this day was coming. Or are you truly as naive as you appear to be, Lady Hinata? Do you really know so little of the matters of the flesh and the body?"

Without even knowing it, the hand that still had slivers of glass within it clenched against her thigh. She didn't even bother to cry out as it cut into her cleanly.

She didn't need this. She didn't _deserve_ this. No matter what sort of whore he might believe her to be.

And when she turned away from him, ostensibly to look for bandages to bind her lacerated hand with, her knees felt on the edge of buckling. Her every movement thereafter left a fine film of blood upon her kimono, staining the hundred-year old fabric with marks that would never lift cleanly.

If she had been in the mood to be literary, she would have thought it symbolized something. But as it was, all she wanted to be away from him, away from this room, away from her past, away from her flesh, away from--

From everything he apparently took so much pleasure of insinuating.

"I am as well-bred as ever, Lord I-itachi," she finally replied, when she was quarter of the room away and her clean fingers were wrapped around cleaner dressings. "And you-- you needn't concern yourself too much about how Sasuke and I are-- are getting along. We've done w-well for ourselves, outside of the clan and our family compounds. You needn't think of us with such c-concern right now."

Now or hopefully ever. Because, gods, it was horrible enough that Sasuke and she had had to worry about their clans worming their way into their lives. But to know that Itachi--

She didn't want his particular brand of poison in her life, or in Sasuke's life. They had both suffered enough from it already.

"Not that you ever have," she whispered, half-hoping he would not hear and even more that he would, wounded enough to be daring. "You w-wouldn't do the things that you-- you always do if you knew... knew what it did to us here."

And why should he? Itachi had always been able to fashion wings and fly where he willed.

He had never seemed to once give a thought to who he had left behind and discarded, year after year after year.

So consumed was she with her thoughts, and so buried in her own misery, that she missed the sound of his footsteps coming towards her until it was too late to react. Until it was too late to cry out for servants. Until it was too late to do anything but stand stock still, her fingers still frozen in the act of bandaging her wounds, eyes wide and skin prickling

* * *

_"I didn't hurt you, did I, princess? I did not mean to be a brute but possibly--"_

* * *

at the feel of his fingertips on her skin once more,

* * *

_"No. No, you didn't hurt me. I... it was wonderful. Truly wonderful. T-thank you for doing this for me..."_

* * *

the grain of the ridges there, and the edges of his nails,

* * *

_"I'm glad you enjoyed this. I wanted this experience to be... thoroughly pleasant, beyond anything."_

* * *

familiar and tender and almost terrible

* * *

_"I-it was. I almost... I mean... i-if our l-lives were different... If I d-didn't love N-Naruto so dearly..."_

* * *

as he caressed her from the nape of her neck down the curve of her spine

* * *

_"Then let us do this again, Hinata. No hesitations. No reservations. Not when there is so much else for you to learn to beguile the man you wish to love openly._

* * *

as though he had traveled down that path a thousand times and

* * *

_"I-I-- L-lord Itachi! I'm not sure I-I-- I'm not sure! I mean-- I-- I wouldn't want to c-consume more of your time. This was m-meant to be-- I thought-- this would only be--"_

* * *

found himself hungry and eager and willing once more

* * *

_"Ah, Hinata. I could do this with you on a thousand more occasions. And if you would only allow me to, I could teach you how to bewitch anybody."_

* * *

to make that slow, devoted journey.

* * *

_"A-anybody?"_

"Anybody."

* * *

He was tracing a simulacrum of the Uchiha fan into the tender skin of her neck, she realized, the knowledge seeping into her slowly. As though he were marking her for something grander than what she already had here.

* * *

_"...Yes, then, Itachi. **Please.**"_

* * *

"I don't know," he began to say, and his voice was soft and languid and almost melancholy. "I don't know how you could say that of me, Hinata-- regardless of what I have done to you, who I am and who I could be. Whatever other sins tarnish my soul, surely indifference does not rank among them easily. You may call me a bastard, a brute and a beguiler-- these insults I accept freely. But whatever other names you may label me, you cannot possibly call me liar. Such a falsehood would be unseemly."

This close to her, at this angle, he could snap her thin little neck quickly. She could feel his powerful hands flexing against her, memorizing her, tightening and relaxing against her in rhythmic waves, as though to soothe her away from something.

Her eyes fluttered shut, once, twice. And then she opened them resolutely.

"I-I know that, my lord. And I-I would t-thoroughly agree. You simply have a-- a gift for convincing gullible p-people that they heard that you would h-help them, when truly, you p-promised no such thing."

She braced herself for a firm hand on her neck, for a sharp crack. For whatever else might come for her eventually.

But instead he laughed in a sound he shad never heard from his pale lips before-- a sound that was curious and hollow and low, somehow empty of all feeling.

And after it was over, his fingers remained upon her body. She had perhaps been praying for him to-- she _had_ been praying for him to pull away. To keep his hands to himself, to withdraw from her completely.

But he kept on her as though mesmerized, as though seeing some fascinating pattern resolve against the snow-white trail of her skin , around the contrast of her aristocratic features and her suddenly knock-kneed bearing. Even after her insult, he still clung to her-- a few curious digits tracing the trembling line of her jaw and a thumb stroking the vulnerable hollow her throat, slowly and carefully.

And then there was another hand gently pulling down the back of her kimono. As though she had invited him to already. As though to reveal something unexpected about her body.

She should say something. He would stop if she said something. He was not so far gone as to force himself on her or any other woman. Not given what she had freely shared with him before and what she had done to become his family.

Not now. Not here.

She opened her lips and the words curled at the base of her suddenly dumb mouth as her incandescent eyes went wide.

This wasn't right. This wasn't _her._

Surely she couldn't want what was now happening.

"I am glad to know that whatever else has happened," he whispered, "you retain your opinions so fiercely."

She let her eyes flutter close at that, as his breath brushed the lobe of her ear. Even as he slowly continued to undress her, she would not face him; she would keep at least this much dignity. And when she answered, she did it softly, but with a voice laden with real feeling.

"M-my lord, I have not been broken yet by the world. And what eighteen years under my f-father's thumb could not do, _you_ will not accomplish so-- easily. So if this is why you came here-- if-if you had some wish to see me suffer again and-- and again--"

_If you came here to tempt me..._

And where there had been merely fingers, there was now the soft edge of his nose and his even softer lips, his profile pressed between her bare shoulder-blades, as though her she had suddenly promised him something. "Why would you think I want that, Hinata? Do you think I revel in feeling you tremble as though frightened against me? In seeing shame sweep across your face? In knowing that if you suffer, I have been one of the principal causes of it? Do you believe me capable of such depravity?"

He sounded so genuinely confused as he whispered those questions, as his words eventually broke into a slow trail of tender caresses down her spine, marking her once more with feel of his mouth, of his slow precision and beauty. Every kiss he pressed to her came with the sting of his teeth, and every sting with the lash of his tongue and lip, as though to punish her something. And in turn, she held onto the wall before her with her nails and told herself that she did not want this, that she had never truly wanted this, that she could prove both her memory and her body were wrong, that she was not _reacting_--

And waited until he had pressed his cheek almost childishly to her, as vulnerable as he had ever shown her, to move on to what she needed to swiftly.

"Because," she whispered, and her hands were suddenly blurring before her body, her her blood-line limit suddenly trembled in a spider-web of veins, power and pale-fire, all the barriers of the world falling before her invincible eyes, the true tendons of all forms revealed--

She felt, more than heard, his breath quicken with anticipation as he took her stance in, as his fingers traced her back possessively.

"Because you tried it on me before, my lord and I-- I don't forgive so easily!"

* * *

**Author's Note**: As always, comments, questions and constructive criticism are always very much loved. I've been bowled over by how many people are enjoying this story so far and believe me, it's really spurring me on in updating this. Four chapters in less than three weeks is a new record for me! Thanks to my readers once again for all their support and I hope you keep reviewing and letting me know how you feel. ;)

(The following section has a few spoilers about latest Naruto manga chapters regarding Itachi's characterization and the Uchiha massacre.)

Also, I had some questions to ask about the Itachi/Hinata interaction in this fic. I originally didn't think Itachi was going to play such a prominent role in this fic but he ended up taking over a large chunk of screen time. Mostly, I loved reading the latest manga chapters on Itachi and finding out why the real reasons behind the Uchiha massacre. And when I learned that he wasn't so much a psychopath as a tragic figure who had to sacrifice his own family for the sake of peace, I fell in love with his character. Therefore, I'm now trying to write the Itachi in this AU in much the same way and have a few questions for my readers.

1) Do you like/are interested in this version of Itachi? You're not getting the full story on him but I'm trying to hint about the reasons why he became Hinata's first lover...  
2) Do you think Hinata and Itachi have chemistry together? Would you like to see them together more often? Should I incorporate him more in the story?

I'm a cross-roads about whether this story should contain more or less of Itachi, possibly delaying Gaara's entrance and Sasuke's various levels of... Sasucocity. I'd love to have your opinion, though if you'd like to skip over the questions entirely, please feel free. ;)


	5. Memories and Mirages

I live! And even more amazingly, I write! It might have taken me a record four months (!) to update this story but damn it, it feels good to be back to working on a story again. And contrary to what some people may have feared (and a few others may have hoped ;), this 'fic is back on track. I spent two straight weeks writing and re-writing this chapter, since trying to generate conflict in this story turned out to be a difficult task. (Though granted, starting a multi-chapter story with no real plan was pretty much asking for problems of that nature to pop up...) But in any case, this chapter is finally done and I had a ridiculous amount of fun writing Itachi as a Magnificent Bastard Who Knows All And Speaks Only Cryptically. I'm going to miss him when the spot-light inevitably falls on the _other_ men in Hinata's life that will soon be driving her batty.

In any case, though it's been months, I hope that the wonderful reviewers I've had before are still interested in reading this story. Thanks again to every wonderful person who's read and reviewed this so far! I wouldn't have worked through the writer's block if it wasn't for your past encouragement.

And so, without wasting any more time, we may as well get to the fic already.

**Title: Lords and Ladies, Chapter 5  
Fandom: Naruto  
Series: Lords and Ladies  
Characters/Pairings: Itachi/Hinata, Sasuke/Hinata/Gaara, Cast  
Rating: R  
Summary: Hinata had expected that her life would change after being married to Sasuke in a sham marriage meant to throw off the chains of their respective families. But she had _no_ idea that the greatest of worries was only now coming...  
Note: This chapter features a few traces of a dubiously consenting sexual situation. There's nothing graphic, but please tread lightly if it's a personal trigger.**

* * *

One of the least well-guarded secrets in modern Konoha-- right behind the fact that Lord Jiraiya had what could charitably be called _a high sex drive_ and more accurately _enough perversions to fuel the brothels of the land indefinitely_-- was the fact that Hinata was, in many ways, a grave disappointment to her family.

At first glance, such a classification might seem unfathomable to most. She was, after all, an exemplary modern-day princess in most of her aspects, precisely the sort of ambassador that lesser clans would love to have representing them to the outside word. She was lovely (in a humble way that played well to hockey moms and house-wives), intelligent (in a soft-spoken way that didn't discomfort men), well-mannered (without the usual giant rod up the rear that most of her family suffered from), and kind-hearted (especially in the midst of a media frenzy). She was, in short, the perfect figure-head for an ancient clan that wanted the public to believe that the Hyuuga had their best interests in mind, never mind their habit of dipping from public coffers to fund their lavish lives. Had Hinata been born to the Uchiha family, they would have used her very well in that regard indeed.

Unfortunately, when she had been born, her family had not been interested in fostering a model princess or cunning diplomat or sympathy-rousing figure-head. They had wanted a strong heir and flawless practitioner of the Jyuken form of martial arts that clan Hyuuga was renowned for, that stemmed from the application of their blood-line limits and a fair degree of vicious artistry. And unfortunately for Hinata, she had not fit that bill in any way. The very qualities that made her so natural a diplomat-- her natural warmth, her gentle character, her extremely photogenic empathy-- made her weak in the eyes of the elders in her clan. All too often, she had hesitated to strike when they had wanted her to and could not bring herself to execute actions that they found necessary. And naturally, it did not help that her own cousin, Neji, and her younger sister, Hanabi, could have served as models for the sort of bloodless ruthlessness the Hyuuga clan had cleaved to for hundreds of years.

When compared with her genius cousin and rising-star sister, Hinata's virtues in the battlefield and the political field-- her patience, her cunning, her inability to back down when she truly _believed_ in her cause-- paled considerably in the eyes of her family. But the truth remained, however, that Hinata would have been considered a formidable kunoichi and political warrior by almost any clan other than her own.

And when she extended a Jyuken strike towards Itachi's bare throat now, her fingers burned with long-suppressed power and her all-knowing eyes could picture his death easily.  


* * *

She knew as soon as this battle began that she would be defeated eventually. Though Hinata considered herself optimistic, she would have to be more short-sighted than the average member of the Inuzuku clan confronted with a bitch in heat to believe she could triumph over the man many considered the most lethal noble in Konoha under the age of 40.

No, she had realized ahead of time, she wouldn't be able to defeat her former lover in any form of hand-to-hand combat. Frankly, if she had even managed able to brush him briefly with a Jyuken strike she would have surprised most people, including herself. But if she could use the element of surprise to maim him just a _tad_--

As it was, however, there were more surprises than she believed possible coming to surround her swiftly.

For one, Itachi did not move out of her way at first-- at least, not immediately. Hinata had the distinct pleasure of believing, for about 2/1000ths of a second, that her tips of her bloodied fingers might actually make contact with her former lover's throat, paralyzing him from neck to knee.

And then Itachi, bastard that he was, smiled, snapped her wrist to the side and averted her strike, quickly following that with a blow to her temple that was strong enough to spin her around and leave her staring wide-eyed at the nearest wall--

She had only one dazed second to think that he might actually knock her unconscious and put her out of her misery when his slender hand gripped her neck and slammed her face so hard against the fine, floral wall-paper of the room that she could barely cry out in misery.

_Well_, Hinata found herself dazedly thinking afterward, a sluggish stream of blood already leaking from one nostril, _at least I now know I ought to treat those training sessions Sasuke keeps offering me more seriously._

"If you hadn't warned me ahead of time," Itachi noted dryly behind her, his pattern of breathing barely disturbed, "that strike would have been far more effective. Really, Hinata, that was the mistake of a rank amateur. Has my time with you taught you nothing?"

_Huh. I hate to admit it but I think he's actually making a valid point here..._

Any more musings she had on the subject, however, exited her head abruptly as she felt Itachi sigh after a moment, and then relax the iron grip he had on her nape... only to compensate by moving himself closer to her, using his far more substantial figure to pin her down like a butterfly in glass, his fingers like needles as they pressed her shoulders to the wall, slender but coldly unyielding.

"I thought you had grown up yet more in the time since we were forced to part," he whispered, his lips brushing the curve of one quivering ear. "But I look at you now and all I see is a child that doesn't know she's a child, one that wishes to put off adulthood completely."

Close, close, he was so gods-damned _close_-- so close it stole her breath easily. So close that their bodies were connected as though they were lovers once more, the curve of her arched back meeting the slope of his slender chest, his thighs pressing against the back of her body, as though he expected to once more have--

As though he was embracing--

And when he spoke again into the ear she had turned to him, his voice was curious, almost husky, the timber of it trailing up and down her spine due to sheer physical proximity. "Did you actually believe that would work, Hinata? That _you_ could somehow overtake _me_?"

Yes. No. She had had her hopes. She knew his skills vastly outdistanced hers, but for one long, beautiful, achingly sincere moment, she had closed her eyes and thought of him being at a disadvantage for once, thought of him knowing how powerlessness would feel--

Hinata whispered her next words quietly, forcing herself not to tremble, forcing herself to remain as still as she could under the binding circumstances he had her in currently. "N-no, my l-lord. I m-merely took this for an... an unorthodox t-training exercise. A-and now that you see m-my Hyuuga training is no m-match for you, I'm assuming you'll r-release me...?"

She could almost hear his huff of frustrated laughter press against her aching shoulder, as though he were amused despite himself, and less angry than he wished to seem. "Please, Hinata. You could at least do me the honor of offering a plausible excuse. I'm not quite the colossal fool you believe me to be. And if I let you slip past me just now, you would simply turn back around and attempt to cleave my head off again with your fair little fingers. What use would that be for me?"

Damn it. She hated to admit this... but her Hyuuga pride had never been enough to keep her from acknowledging reality when it (literally) pressed against her this starkly. So, swallowing a thousand years of high-and-mighty breeding, Hinata forced herself to admit what even a Rock Lee inspired by words of love and courage would have to agree with the truth. "A-after what you've just shown me, m-my lord, I doubt I could get the n-nerve to try for another r-round. Fighting you is f-far beyond my abilities."

Oddly enough, though, this didn't seem to convince Itachi in the least. If anything, it led the hand that had been gripping at her neck previously to resume it's position... and his other hand to curve lightly against her hip, stroking the shivering skin under fine cloth there slowly. "Ah, yes. Of course. I keep forgetting what an enormous coward you are, my dear. Remind me... when, exactly, was it that you lost your nerve? After you attacked someone who could slaughter you with one hand forced up any given orifice? Or tried to deceive the most powerful elders of Konoha as to what delicate emotions rule you in the presence of your beloved husband, such as he may be?"

Despite herself, Hinata found herself shivering at that last sentence of his, the way he had felt it out, as though tasting every word-- especially that of _husband_-- for rare flashes of sweetness before he had let it leave him completely. "Y-you seem to spend a great deal of time on my-- my alleged doings, my lord. W-without Saskuke and I by your side, are you so lonely for company?"

She had thought to anger him; but if anything, the thought of being lonely seemed merely to amuse Itachi even more. He simply a considering noise and then leaned into her further, his lips brushing closer to her bloodied face than Hinata thought fair. "And if I was, my fair princess? Would you take your handsome swain in hand and come again to visit me?"

When dealing with Itachi's supernaturally calm mein, even Neji would be hard-pressed to tell if a smile of his was open and honest or merely a prelude to something considerably more sinister. Knowing she had no way to tell if that hint of longing in his voice was real or not (though how _could_ it be? this was Itachi!), Hinata demurred from answering the question momentarily. "I-it would not be my place to dictate terms to you, m-my lord, my-- my _brother._" (_That_, at least, managed to gain a soft, almost mute gasp from him, Hinata's keen ears savoring that surprising sound from her erst-while captor.) "And-- and Sasuke and I have-- have been busy as of late. A-as-- as newlyweds, we..."

Her brother-in-law made another noise again; but far from savoring this, Hinata felt a distinct pang of fear beginning to develop in her. "Ah, yes, I remember it as much. The _infamous_ passion that the two of yet may or may not have consummated yet, given how shy and delicate your courtship was. Tell me-- is it truly true that the two of you spent three days in bed together when you were first wed? Or was it merely something your clever mind fashioned to throw all of us off of your heels?"

Internally, Hinata cursed every single strand of DNA that may have been handed down from one Uchiha to the next to create the infuriating bastard who was _still_ holding her hostage in her own home. It was just _like_ him to know how to go for the throat in any encounter he found himself in, against any enemy. Externally, however, she arched one defiant eyebrow up at him, even as her cheeks found themselves flaming. "D-do you really believe your brother to n-not be a-attractive enough to inspire so much f-filial devotion, m-my lord? I find him quite f-fetching myself, r-really."

Well, she told herself pathetically, as Itachi's eyebrow rose to match hers, that wasn't exactly a lie, even if her increased stutter didn't exactly make it sound convincing. It really _hadn't_ been much of a hard-ship to camp out in bed with her new husband for three days during their first week of marriage as they tried to look besotted with each other-- even if her elders _had_ still seemed suspicious afterward. Damn it all, if only they hadn't been squeamish about spilling a little bit of her blood to make things look a bit less tidy...

"And here I thought you were more attracted towards blonds," Itachi responded dryly, sending another rush of blood circulating to the tops of her cheeks. "Or have your romantic peccadilloes changed so quickly? If you keep changing your mind from one man to the next, you might be accused of faithlessness easily."

If she had been in better form, she probably would have responded to that ridiculous accusation in some way. Quipped that at least the blonds in her life had never held her hostage in her own home, perhaps. Or sweetly murmured that she had learned the art of faithlessness from the best-- or at least, from the man holding her currently. Or simply used the moment of distraction to pivot around and direct her knee to her captor's quite unguarded family treasury.

And that small, proud part of Hinata that clung to her Hyuuga pride might very well have done all of that and more, refusing to yield so easily to a cheap blow from a very calm and bitter enemy.

She would have continued to fight back. If only--

(_that small little face enveloped in blankets, in his father's arms_)

If only she hadn't seen Naruto and his newborn son just this morning.

(_that life that she would never have, that another woman had stolen quickly_)

If only she hadn't been reminded of what she had tried for and already lost.

(_the ring on her left hand that suddenly ached_)

If only she didn't have to remember how-- and why-- she and Itachi had ended.

(_"You don't need me in your life, do you, princess? You've another suitor calling."_)

If only he didn't make her always feel so inadequate.

(_"I-- my lord-- please-- Itachi! No, I don't. Not anymore! He's-- he's already... I didn't know but he and Lady... and y-you... you can't... you can't also leave me..."_)

If only there wasn't a part of her that almost wished--

(_"Strange, that those eyes of yours could still be so blind. What else, I wonder, don't they perceive?"_)

Just like that, the fight that had led her to fling herself momentarily vanished, leaving her sagging in the arms of the man who had seduced and thrown her away, leaving her with almost insulting ease. And small part of Hinata even found a secret, furtive joy in the startled breath her former lover exhaled as he suddenly found his arms full of her curves and his vision covered by a cloud of her inky hair, as she let herself rest against him, his again momentarily.

And from the way his arms came around her again, Itachi wasn't quite as unaffected as he clearly wanted to be, despite his cruel words now and from before, despite the way he seemed to enjoy toying with her as though she had meant nothing. And if he wanted to so desperately hold her again, then he was welcome to. It wouldn't be anything she hadn't offered up to her previously.

This had to be some sort of power-play on Itachi's part, after all. Simply a way of asserting his will over another way-ward member of his family for some obscure Uchiha purpose.

He'd toy with her momentarily, and taunt her about upcoming troubles, and leave her alone with her thoughts soon enough.

They all did, eventually.

But for now, at least, she would let him hold her with appalling ease, resting his chin against the rigid jut of her shoulder and pressing himself against her once more, as though he remembered the placement of her every wayward freckle and follicle, corralling her curves easily. And in turn, she would pretend she was not bothered, closing her eyes and taking in the fall of his breath, the warmth of his back, his almost comforting solidity.

No one else had ever held her like this. Naruto had never bothered and Sasuke had never offered, and she wasn't sure if there was anyone else out there that could do this for her without substituting her for someone else they wanted more desperately.

And finally, after she had had her fill of him, she pressed her damp, moon-pale face against the wall-paper and felt him take a step back from her, as though he found something about her repellent suddenly.

"Do you mind," she managed to whisper, taking advantage of the moment of freedom to wipe the blood from her face, "p-please explaining why my lordship has been in my h-husband's room for the last half-hour, taking a-advantage of his absence to have some r-rather unacceptable liberties?"

Instinctively, she knew that if she turned around, she would have seen those uncanny Uchiha eyes open wide at her, illuminated by some strange, inner lighting. Itachi's voice certainly wasn't exactly devoid of emotion when he responded to her question slowly. "I shall explain as soon as _you_ begin by telling me how a woman who once pledged herself to me ended up marrying my brother with such ease."

She was too tired to raise her voice, but the venom from days past still entered it, as though the words themselves were contaminated, rising from some strange wound in her psyche that had never healed properly. "I d-don't ever remember making such a p-promise. And w-we could go on for some time with this... this game, couldn't we? I could ask why you even c-care, when you left me f-first, and you could ask if I'm actually happy being s-sloppy seconds for _somebody._"

Another intake of breath from him; another sign that he was nowhere near as unaffected as he passed himself off as being. "Is this what you see yourself as, my lady Hinata? A trinket possessing little true worth, except for the dowry of prestige and power you could bring to whoever choses you expeditiously?"

His fingertips extended to trace the white curve of her neck; those fingertips had once traced patterns onto the blushing curves of her breasts, as that voice of his hand once whispered and curled up as he made insinuations of eternity... "I-I never said that was _my_ view of m-myself... I think you r-reveal far more than you c-conceal on the subject of what I am to you, m-my great Lord Itachi."

His fingertips retreated as he gave an indolent sigh that would have made Casanova proud. His moment of strange tenderness had apparently passed quickly. "Are we descending into games of Freudian interpretation already? Now all we shall need to do is connect last night's dreams to phallic imagery and the drawing room farce you insist on perpetuating in reply to my questions shall finally be complete."

"The o-only farce here," she whispered, edging her entire body around to look directly at that strange, frightening, once-longed-for face, "i-is the one my l-lordship is now conducting. S-surely you haven't traveled here m-merely to terrorize me, sire. So w-why _have_ you come here?"

And then, apropos of nothing, Lord Itachi of the Uchiha let his lips curve into a smile... a smile that had his one-time lover now pressing _herself_ desperately against the wall behind her, like a rabbit that found itself facing a far larger predator without an exit strategy.

Nothing good, she knew from nearly a lifetime's acquaintance, could ever come from a smile of caliber. It never had before and from what she'd seen of Itachi and the rest of his family, it likely never would. It was lupine, lovely, just the slightest bit limpid-- precisely the smile he had given her when he had broken her heart previously.

And, even worse, precisely the smile he had given her just before he had almost fractured her skull a few minutes ago.

Suddenly, she was all too aware of how still and silent the rest of the house suddenly felts; gods, where was _Sasuke_?

"Would you believe," Itachi murmured as he brought that smile of his closer to her trembling face, "that I came by to see how my new sister was doing?"  


* * *

The first rule of war-fare, Hinata remembered reading once, was to never let to allow your enemy to choose your battle's territory.

Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly advice she could adhere to currently. If love and whatever came after it was gone was a battlefield, she'd long since found herself ambushed by Itachi. Even if she had been the one to initiate their short-lived and much-regretted affair, he had largely been in control of what had gone on within it. And Itachi most certainly _had_ been the one to decide when to terminate their liaison, giving her only that cryptic message about her other possible suitors that had eventually led her to marry Sasuke as much out of spite as any other reason.

(Not that she'd framed her reason for marrying to her husband in that way. As far as he knew, she had done it for the same reason he had: sheer convenience, the ability to spend their life with a tentative friend rather than a family-chosen stranger, and a way of squirming out from under the thumb of their overbearing parents. That it also constituted a quiet but definite _fuck you_ to her husband's brother was something Hinata was quite happy to keep from Sasuke.)

Much of what had happened in Hinata's pathetic excuse of a love life since the end of her first affair had happened in reaction to Itachi's obscure and cruel actions. So far, their present conversation had led to her dancing to his strings in much the way she'd done so much else. But if there was one thing Hinata knew about Itachi, it was this.

There was nothing he hated quite as much as being personally humiliated. And if sharing his bed and learning the ins-and-outs of his true nature had taught her nothing else, she had learned quite a lot about exactly how to get under his skin efficiently.

---

Hinata's voice was very nearly prim as she started answering her jailer's question in a way that couldn't have been more false if the devil himself had sprang up on the spot to begin editing her story.

"I-I'm doing perfectly well, thank you," she began in a soft, husky whisper, her eyes deliberately and insultingly raised to her superior. "I can't complain at all about being m-married. E-especially when it comes to S-Sasuke. He might occasionally s-snore in bed but his c-creativity when conscious on i-it makes up for a g-great many failings."

Judging from the soft noise he made at the back of his throat-- and the way his already hooded eyes lowered to meet her pale lips-- this wasn't the answer he'd been expecting from his hunting expedition. Not that that, of course, was nearly enough to deter an Uchiha. Even if she didn't have the experience of marrying one and bedding another, Hinata would have expected persistence from anyone in the family.

"Ah," he murmured, and the terrible and dexterous hands that hand temporarily fallen off her flushed form found their way back to her hips. "That's a very credible answer. And given how endearing my brother has historically found woman-kind, I'm assuming you'll now tell me that the two of you rut from dawn to dusk like a pair of over-heated rabbits?"

She hesitated only a second before pressing now; now that she had started to spin her lies, after all, she could hardly take them back without showing yet more weakness. "Oh no," she finally replied, pursing her lips and looking demurely away from her brother-in-law, as though they were discussing a mere question of manners. "I a-afraid your brother's level of-- of activity would give even _you_ pause. You were almost... _lethargic_ in bed when compared to h-him. And c-certainly you n-never greeted me as e-enthusiastically after a m-meal."

Itachi made a noise of sheer, concentrated incredulity, which quite offended Hinata on behalf of her husband. After all, given the fact that she'd never actually _had_ sex with Sasuke, everything she had just said might even be true... though Hinata admitted that her husband would have to have the stamina of a jack-hammer and the tenacity of a entire hutch of rabbits to even come close to matching his older brother.

Still, even if her words weren't exactly founded on her personal experience , at least it caused the small, smug smile curling around Itachi's face to strain just the slightest bit. Anything that could cause a crack to form in that smooth, perfect facade made Hinata's heavy heart cheer.

His voice, however, remained smooth and mellifluous as he went on, as though her words were sliding off of him without causing the slightest iota of doubt or regret. "How pleasant for you, my dear. I remember how sweetly insatiable you used to be. I can only be glad the mere presence of marital bliss apparently hasn't dampened your... _adventurous_ spirit. Matrimony can be such a trial to some, unfortunately."

The rush of blood to her already slick cheeks came automatically at her words; it was all she could do not to turn away from those knowing eyes as she remembered just _what_ adventures he was referring to. "W-well, we are newly-weds. And I-I can be quite creative on occasion."

That tugged a thoroughly unwholesome smile from her former lover. "I couldn't forget that attribute even if I tried, my lady. Not that the pleasant memories we've created have given me a such reason. Tell me... do you still have all the paints you used to smear all over me? Or is my brother a little more fastidious than I was when it came to your artistic achievements?"

His fingers had been tightening around her hips more and more as his voice had gilded on, and now it felt as though she could not so much as shift from her place without him holding her to him even more possessively. Clearly, attempting to slither away from this situation by giving him the information that he said he wanted was accomplishing exactly nothing. Gritting her teeth, Hinata decided to move on to a more direct attempt at confrontation.

"I could go into a f-feature by feature comparison but I-I'm afraid there aren't enough h-hours in the day. So, m-my lord, if you would just t-tell me why exactly y-you're here...?"

But instead of prompting him to give her a straight answer, it only led to Itachi's lips twisted in a terrible little smirk, one that seemed to mock both himself and her simultaneously. "Such distrust from my own family line! Why must you assume that my position as heir to the Uchiha precludes my taking an interest in your welfare as a part of your new family?"

There were many, many answers Hinata found she could give to that question; after a moment's silence born from her sheer incredulity, she contented herself with responding that if God himself had swung by in a gold chariot to ask her how her day was going along so far, she'd find it less unlikely.

Itachi simply shrugged her comment off, fingers gliding elegantly to her waist as he did so. "You always did have something of a talent for incredulity. And though you apparently find me perfectly unfeeling, I truly _do_ care about my brother's life and welfare, however monstrous I may otherwise seem. And as one of his guardians, I am party to quite a lot of information about what might soon imperil his apparent state of wedded bliss. And thus, when I must, I try and do my duty as a brother to gently intervene."

Now _this_ was an answer she hadn't expected from him at the least. What on earth could he possibly mean? "I-imperil his state of w-wedded bliss? I-I'm not sure what e-exactly..."

For some strange reason, something Naruto had said to her earlier this morning sprang to mind easily. _"Huh. So you wanna go back to the court after only a few months of marriage? I guess with Sasuke, it's a wonder you even stayed this long in the manor the first place..."_

But she hadn't _wanted_ to go back to court, new emperor or no. Even though her marriage might have been a sham, it had been surprisingly pleasant to spend a few months living in her own home, away from her family and with a husband who knew enough to respect her privacy. And though she hardly felt any sort of grand passion for Sasuke-- she _didn't_, she _couldn't_-- he was still a friend of sorts, and one who she had chosen to marry.

What on earth could possibly come to imperil any marriage of theirs, given what a smashing success it was in the eyes of the public?

Who could possibly interfere?

And what could possibly drive Itachi himself to come and warn her personally?

Unless...

"I see you may be starting to catch on," Itachi murmured in response to the sudden gleam in her eyes, his hands adjusting to touch her trembling chin briefly. "Let us see you rise to this occasion more swiftly. Being from one of the more mercenary clans of Konoha, disregarding their pretensions to nobility, should make it easy. That delicate hand of yours, though its been grasped temporarily by my brother, seems to be on the market for another swain entirely."

_Oh gods, please let this be something other than..._ "I... I don't know what you mean..."

Itachi's eyes narrowed at her, and his fingers curved around her white neck a little more roughly. "I wish I could say I was surprised, my lady. But then, given the delicate sensibilities of your father, I doubt you were consulted anymore than _I_ was." The slight tightening of his left hand on her hip was the only sign that this upset him more than his voice indicated currently. "And my brother of course-- well, Sasuke could not be more blind if you were cuckolding him in his own bed nightly."

Deeply offended-- more so than she cared to even admit to herself-- Hinata scowled reflexively. "Whatever else you may think of _me_, my lord, I am n-no adulterer. I have b-been far more t-true to your brother than you have been to _me._"

Was that a flash of brief guilt in his eyes? Or merely the play of uncertain light on his face, a sign of her own hopes and fears? "No," Itachi murmured after a moment, moving one hand up to cup her damp cheek. "That isn't in the least hard to believe. You always were more faithful than the men around you deserved. I wish that your father would understand this more clearly."

But why would her father need to...? "M-my honored father," she whispered, after another moment of dread contemplation, "has long realized that I have the potential to be a good... no... an _excellent_ political wife. He would not have b-blessed my marriage to the second-in-line to the throne of Konoha if..."

"If," Itachi smoothly interrupted, his voice low and languid and terribly, terribly cold, "he had the chance to procure an even grander son-in-law for his thoroughly dispiriting daughter. Not good enough to inherit the clan and too hopelessly common to even marry off to gain ties to another, more illustrious country... is there any way in which you haven't managed to let down your clan, Hinata? It's as though you take pleasure in being a disappointment to your family."

The cruelty in those soft words... and the way his eyes raked across her face for signs of pain and inadequacy...

If she hadn't hated him already, she could have learned how to do so at this very hour, within this strange meeting. But even with the force of her hate helping her to go on, her voice was shakier and more wounded than she wanted to admit as she went on eventually. "I-I may be a-- a disappointment indeed, my lord... But at least I'm one that-- that my family need not worry about currently. I have been h-happily settled to a r-respectable man and surely even my f-father can have no g-greater concerns about me at this point, other than w-wondering when his first g-grand-child will arrive."

"Ah, yes," Itachi murmured, his eyes gleaming like ink as his cold, reptilian hand stroked her cheek once again, skimming the tear-streaked surface slowly. "Under normal circumstances, your father would likely have allowed all thoughts of you to slip away long away, contenting himself with the knowledge that at least he managed to dispose of you in a manner that didn't bring any more disgrace to his great family. But political winds change swiftly, my dear, and your hand in marriage has once again managed to become a worthy commodity. And because it would dearly strain my own family's position in Konoha-- as well as my dear brother's happiness-- I felt it would be a good idea to speak to you about the current plan to dissolve your match directly."

Her eyes widened. "What do you m-mean?" she whispered, buried to the hilt with disbelief. "Who would be grand enough for my father to d-dare disrupt a marriage to-- to the second in line, the almost heir of Konoha? H-how could he p-possibly offer me to a-any..."

But then her former lover and current tormentor inclined his head and Hinata grasped it all instantly, her mind working at a speed her father would have thought impossible, her eyes widening at the very thought.

"You don't mean-- o-oh gods, y-you _can't_ mean--"

Itachi simply inclined his head and smiled at her, no trace of real humor left in him at all. "For both our sakes, Lady Hinata, I wish you luck with the courting you'll be receiving from Emperor Gaara of Suna shortly. Juggling lovers is never easy-- and you'll have a pair of exceptionally temperamental ones to eventually contend with. And if you should choose in a way that displeases me... well, at least you shan't have to worry about living your life with a Suna barbarian by your side. You shall not even pass the gates of Konoha if I have a say in your future doings."

* * *

It was a revelation mad enough to drive any woman to drink.

And so she did, after Itachi had pressed one last, languid kiss to her quivering eyelids and promised that he'd be watching her situation as it unraveled slowly.

When Sasuke found her alone in the room an hour later, his brother having long since departed with one last caress accompanied by his sinister promise, Hinata was drunk, half-nude, wearing her bra as a hat, and giggling to herself about nothing.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Please **_review_** if you've read and enjoyed this story. I know a lot of people may have lost interest in this piece because I haven't updated in a very long time... which is precisely why I'd really appreciate it if my readers would drop me a note letting me know if they're still hanging in there. I'm having fun a lot of fun working on this again but my time is really limited now because of school/teaching and if I don't have an audience for this piece, I might drop it and start something else. So please do let me know if you'd still like to keep up with Hinata's mad entanglements. If my readers are still out there, I'll actually try to update within a month next time... cross my heart on it. Truly. ;)

And also, a quick question for audience members who'd like to help me out with some constructive criticism: how do you feel about Hinata in this story? Is she an interesting protagonist? Can you empathize with her? Is she appropriately bashful about certain things, while also mature enough to reflect her 20-something years? I wanted to make her shrewd and sharp enough to pique the interest of my readers... while also keeping in mind that she isn't as bold as a character like Sakura either. So how do you feel about her and her reaction to dealing with Sasuke and Itachi?

(And yes, Sasuke-fans... he's featured prominently in the next chapter. Which will have a lemon warning. After all, what's the use of getting a character drunk and half-naked if you aren't going to be following up on that eventually? ;)


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